Photographer's Note

This is part of the Kushiro Marsh in Hokkaido, the north most island of Japan. The bright areas are simply breaks in the cloud. The photo was taken from the "number two viewpoint"; one of the few places from which to get a birds eye view of the marsh which covers 17km east to west, and 36km north to south. The biggest marsh in Japan.

I should mention that I used a polarizer to remove the glare from the water and bring out the greens. I also have a version with the polarizer turned 90 degrees, with the water like a silver streak as opposed to black. However, the greens are also not so saturated, so I prefer this.

This area is home to the Japanese crane, or Tanchouzuru, providing a beautiful site with their mating dance on the snow in spring. I hope to go back one day to capture this site. For this trip the only site I got was in a reserve.

Le plan d'eau a la forme d'une carte de géographie.
Très belle image dans un si joli site loin de la civilisation.
J'aimerai bien connaître cette partie du Japon hors des villes et de la foule.
The water has the shape of a chart of geography. Very beautiful picture in a so pretty site far from civilization. I would like to know this part of Japan out of the cities and crowd.

That'a new view of Japan I'm learning about. Could be anywhere else but it's nice to know that they also have this kind of landscape.
The contrast between the color of the vegetation and the dark water is nice and the photo is quite sharp. This standing log goes well. I might have cropped a little to the right, maybe 1 inch from the border.

Martin this image changes my presumption of Japan as being a very crowded place,
most TV documentaries here just focus on the big cites / technology, and normally we only see images of the famous Mount Fuji.

The image capture does give the feeling that there are natural places to get away from it all, and a very good advantage point from which to show this, most pleasing to the eye thanks for sharing